This invention is an improvement over the inventor's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,953 which issued on June 26, 1979. The patented device utilized a split locking ring having one long downturned leg and one short downturned leg. This difference in leg lengths was necessary because the lock receptacle shown in the patent was rather large, had a complicated shape, and could not be accommodated between two equal-sized legs. However, because of the unequal-sized legs, the installer had difficulty manually squeezing the two legs together with one hand when inserting the take-up fastener between the down-turned leg holes with the other hand.
Also, the patented device had a guide sleeve mounted within the conical bushing in the front aperture of the housing. The guide sleeve supported and guided the head portion of the barrel lock. In the field, vandals often smashed these guide sleeves thereby covering the keyways of the locks which prevented authorized persons from inserting their keys into the locks.
Also, the patented lock receptacle proved difficult to fabricate and was relatively expensive to make. Similarly, the patented locking ring required a burdensome and expensive modification of the conventional locking ring which has downturned legs of equal length.